Wuxiaworld Ending HJC Translation...

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by rwxwuxiaworld, Mar 13, 2018.

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  1. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    I don't know much about munpia, honestly. Maybe they do well by their authors. I just know Qidian does not.

    Munpia has one thing going right for them, though. Their novels seem to end.
     
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  2. alamptr

    alamptr What should i put here

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    Whoaa, qidian doesn't? Any discussion or link that i miss?
     
  3. Shield Loyalist

    Shield Loyalist 『Instinctive』『Status: Hungry for Growth』

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    The novels are often so long (some even go over 1k chapters) that you would think their authors' favorite phrase is "the more the merrier".
    There's also those...that...don't end...literally.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  4. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Perhaps a bit of an overstatement. I was just referring to the contract authors sign with Qidian - turning over ownership of their work. That typically wouldn't fly in the english publishing market. It's way more normal for a publisher to have an exclusive publishing deal with an author -- owning their work, though? Dream on. The author would have to be desperate. ... That said, as far as I know, Qidian doesn't skimp on giving authors a fair cut of their novel's earnings or anything too bad like that. The big issue is just the IP.
     
  5. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Hey hey you won the argument by talking about a different issue. I was clearly talking about sales of chapters.
    I demand a rematch @RTS would be fair judge
     
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  6. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Hey, if you want to go back to talking about Qidian making authors rich, the real point to argue there was that authors aren't rich to begin with. The average author working for Qidian doesn't make shit. They'd be better off getting a regular job. That has more to do with the struggle of being an author in general though - a struggle you can see among authors globally.

    If you want to earn enough as an author, you have to have really high readership.

    That or get rich quick with IP sales. Whichever.
     
  7. alamptr

    alamptr What should i put here

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    About the intellectual property, i doubt it must be done with qidian system. The reader bought the chapter with some curency right?
    Imagine this scenario, er gen quit from qidian and want to bring all his novel from qidian site. But qidian already sell that novel to the reader. Wouldnt it be complicated? So in this system qidian must own that chapter, so that problem will not happen.

    It will be different case if the income is from ad.
     
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  8. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Sadly, I don't know much about the inner workings of Qidian but the novel Big Life did open up the Korean internet novel industry . It was a nice read. I assumed Qidian model should be similar since sites like Munpia are probably younger. . Basically it's better for Asian authors than Western authors from what I gathered
     
  9. RTS

    RTS ☀┩ îИϑîℂ✞υƧ ɛӼքʊɢռǟȶօʀ┡☀

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    Who dost call mine self?
    I see, so it was you, @Wujigege.

    It looks mine self shalt hast to do read this whole argument to figure out what's all of this is about.
     
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  10. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    This is where the exclusive publishing deal I mentioned comes in. Let's say you want to write a book in the U.S. .. You're going to work with a publisher - like Qidian - to put your book on the market and bring it to the attention of readers. The contract you sign with this publisher will usually be an exclusive contract stating that only they can publish your book. That would mean you can't take your book and give it to someone else to publish. There's a very big difference, however, between signing away your publishing rights and signing away ownership of your work. A normal publisher only wants to make sure they're the only one who can sell your novel for you. Qidian, on the other hand, wants you to directly give them your rights as the author.

    Well, I only know this from reading articles online about the splits and mergers in china's webnovel industry and the chatter around here, so take it all with a pinch of salt anyway. It'd be better to get your information from a more direct source than me.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
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  11. alamptr

    alamptr What should i put here

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    I am quite confused
    Let say i wrote a novel, then i sold publication right to publisher. That means that i cannot publish it elsewhere right?
    So what benefit that i have from owning that ip when i cant even publish to another publisher?
     
  12. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    He is referring to making money from movies , animation etc. Qidian most likely own the IP so the author won't make any money from anime or movies unless the very popular ones
     
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  13. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Well first off the publishing contract you sign may have limitations. For example, you might work with separate digital and hard-copy publishers. You may also not directly sign away your publishing rights for life. Instead, the publisher may agree to a limited term: say, 5 or 10 years. After which, you're free to look for other alternatives.

    But let's say you did just directly sign an exclusive publishing deal, for life. What do you have left?

    Leverage with adaptations, mostly. Translations, arrangements, movies, video games, etc made from your work are all directly part of your rights as an author. Without your explicit permission, no one can do anything.

    Your publisher has no say in this unless you agreed to give them one.

    Take the situation with translations here for example: If I want to translate a chinese webnovel hosted on Qidian, I have to negotiate with Qidian. Because they hold those rights. The author? Qidian may not even need to inform them, much less care what they have to say about it. ... If the author retains their rights, though, I don't have to talk to Qidian at all: I have to talk to the author.

    That also means that if Qidian wanted to launch a large international platform for translated novels, they would need to negotiate a completely new deal with the author before they could move ahead. The authors would presumably be able to negotiate a fairer slice of the pie with this as leverage. Instead, Qidian holds all the leverage in their relationship. They can do what they want.


    I do think some of Qidian's wealthier authors have better contracts with them, though. Which is understandable. A popular, high-income author has more leeway to negotiate, even with Qidian. Then again, they may not. It may just be that the royalties already agreed to when they signed over ownership of their work included royalties from adaptations. I don't know.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
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  14. alamptr

    alamptr What should i put here

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    I doubt less popular series will get adaptation. And for the popular ones i doubt the author didnt get a share too

    Let see from the pov of reader. If qidian make non lifetime contract, let say 5 years. When i buy chapter from qidian sites, there is a risk that i cant read that novel 5 years later. If that happen who will read from qidian?

    For the 5th paragraph. That because qidian own the publication right, so you cannot publish to another site. Including overseas market right? And i think i read a few of author nites in qidian international
     
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  15. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Personally I think IP is pointless if your novel is unknown and you are unknown.
    You can't be in a strong position to negotiate if you are unknown. It's only fair.
    No company will give favourable terms to an unproven property.
    To me most advice about IP were given in hindsight.
    The companies took a risk on an unknown author. It's very convenient to look at it only from the author's point of view
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2018
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  16. Fermi

    Fermi 〔 ALT+F4 〕

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    Good point. And you make your point very clearly. If someone wants to go that route, maybe they could base payout on an exponential function or something. I guess it's an excellent way to encourage the translators to translate more, since each subsequent chapter they translate would probably net more money per chapter with that system.

    Easier said than done? Just you watch me corral all the rogue translators into one massive translating team that translates a book a week!! :blobhero::blobhero: (just kidding)

    RIP Konjiki no Wordmaster though :blobsad:
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
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  17. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Well to be fair there's no good reason a publisher needs more than the exclusive publishing rights to begin with. Their job is to sell your book, and they get a cut from every sale they make. ... Why then, do they also need a slice of the pie if, say, a movie deal comes up? ... Retaining your rights as an author is generally probably pointless, yeah, because no one is going to make a movie out of your shitty book. ... That said, there's also no reason to sign those rights over to the publisher, either, and risk the future.

    It's all about protecting yourself from potential exploitation. If nothing happens.. nothing happens. If something does happen, though, you want to know that you're in a position to negotiate, and haven't already signed all of your rights away to someone else.
     
  18. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I think it's cultural. Some exploitative practices are cultural. Explains why manga and anime staff commit so much suicide.
    TV companies exploit production companies who then exploit freelancers. It's an unending cycle
     
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  19. Westeller

    Westeller Smokin' Sexy Style!! Staff Member

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    Most likely, the contract would simply be extended after those five years. If Qidian is doing right by you, there's no reason not to. It's more about protecting yourself from being screwed over and keeping your options open in the future.. If your book turned out to be really super duper popular, you might be able to negotiate for a larger cut of the sales. If you've already signed away all of your rights more permanently, however, then you're stuck with whatever terms you were originally given, no matter how successful your work is.

    AS @Wujigege says, because authors are usually "unknown" when they begin, the terms they're originally given might be a lot worse than what they could get with an established popularity and large readerbase. ... Unfortunately, it's all for naught if you aren't in a position to renegotiate.
     
  20. alamptr

    alamptr What should i put here

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    @Wujigege
    Whoa, i didnt read this before
    Is there any link to it? Or some keyword so i can search on google?
     
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